County-union talks heating up as deadline looms

STOCKTON - With talks, strikes and talk of more strikes, negotiations this week between San Joaquin County government and its workers heated up as a deadline loomed to reach a deal before the current contract expires at the end of the month.

STOCKTON - With talks, strikes and talk of more strikes, negotiations this week between San Joaquin County government and its workers heated up as a deadline loomed to reach a deal before the current contract expires at the end of the month.

Negotiators would need to come up with a deal today to give workers time to ratify terms for a new contract in time to replace the current arrangement, according to Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents about 75 percent of the county's work force.

Workers would like a raise - and how much that would be appears to be the sticking point.

So far, union negotiators have agreed to parts of a county proposal to offset wage increases by splitting the cost of providing pensions and linking a future raise to county revenues.

Workers who haven't received a raise in four years are asking for an increase of 2.5 percent in the first year of a three-year contract and raises of 2 percent in both the second and third years to make up for the rise in the cost of living, said Bill Petrone, SEIU Local 1021's interim director for the San Joaquin region.

The county hasn't come back with numbers of its own, nor has it provided information how the revenue-linked raises would work, he said.

"We haven't heard one number from the county," he said. "The union is not going to bargain against itself."

The county will have more details of that plan at negotiations scheduled to continue today, Human Resources Director Cynthia Clays said.

"Part of it is buying into the concept," she said. "(The union) is buying into it, but they are laying a floor of 2 percent."

Projected revenue in the county continues to fall short of anticipated expenses, Clays said.

In recent years, the county has defunded capital projects, depleted reserves and used other "one-time" funds worth $168 million to keep the budget balanced in difficult financial years.

"We're still not out of the woods financially," she said.

It is why the county is looking for a "revenue neutral" approach to raises, she said.

So far, it appears the county and the union are close - in concept - on the first and third years. For the second year, SEIU employees were very reluctant to give up four floating holidays, saying they had received those in lieu of wage increases during negotiations back in the 1970s.

Negotiators have been meeting most days this week. There were no negotiations Wednesday, when a few hundred county workers walked off the job at different locations, shutting down two county landfills until noon.

Talks lasted less than 15 minutes on Thursday. Four negotiators from the county at one table faced rows of tables where the SEIU bargaining team sat.

County negotiator Geoff Rothman commented on recent news about a deal struck for state government workers, saying the revenue-based increases seemed similar to the county proposal. The county appreciates that the SEIU is willing to explore the proposals for years one and three, he said.

"The bookends, from the county's perspective, look positive," Rothman said.

Petrone asked for percentages from the county and more details about the revenue-linked plan. Then the county negotiators left to talk with other officials.

"They just came in with nothing, literally nothing new, after two days," said Steve Marino, 57, a member of the bargaining team who has worked at Environmental Health for 11 years.

"I was optimistic at the start of this, that we would be able to hash out something," he said, adding he's not sure about that now.